The present invention concerns a feed device in accordance with the introductory part of patent claim 1. Such a feed device has become known (DE 32 49 925 C2) in that for the purpose of cutting foods, in particular sausage and cheese, such a product is placed on a roller conveyor whereby the roller conveyor is slanted downward in the direction of a circular knife which interacts with a fixed counterknife.
At the rear end, the product is caught by a so-called claw consisting of an intermittently driven housing whose front end features mechanical claws which catch the rear face of the product and hold it. When viewed in the longitudinal direction of the product, the claw is driven intermittently or continuously by a drive so that with each advance of the claw the product is moved along over a certain distance on the roller conveyor against the circular knife so that a slice of a specific thickness is cut from the product.
Such cutting machines process products with a length of up to 1.20 m. When handling such long products, in particular when these products feature a relatively soft consistency, there is the disadvantage that when the product is driven intermittently on the roller conveyor towards the circular knife the product has a tendency to swing thus resulting in inconsistent slice thickness.
In other words there are undesirable product swings due to the intermittent feed drive of this product against the circular knife resulting in the inconsistent slices described above.